Prince of Wales riots

The Prince of Wales riots occurred in Bombay, British India,

between 19 and 22 November 1921 during the visit of Edward,
Prince of Wales. The visit came during the non-cooperation
movement protests for Indian self-rule, led by Mahatma Gandhi
and the Indian National Congress. Gandhi had allied the mainly
Hindu Congress with the Muslim Khilafat Movement, who were
concerned about the possibility that the British might depose the
Ottoman Caliph. Gandhi called for his supporters to boycott the
prince's visit and carry out a general strike (hartal).

The Prince was welcomed by members of the Parsi, Jewish and

Anglo-Indian minorities. These were attacked by a Hindu and
Muslim mob who also burnt shops, trams and cars. Parsi-owned
liquor shops were a particular target. Anglo-Indian and Parsi mobs
formed in response to the violence and attacked those they
suspected of supporting the non-cooperation movement. Gandhi
was shocked by the violence and declared he would undertake a Edward, Prince of Wales in 1919
hunger strike until peace was restored. The violence abated on 22
November, at least 58 lives having been lost. After the riots the
British imprisoned thousands of non-cooperation movement supporters and Gandhi attempted to rebuild the
movement with support from the minorities as well as the Hindu-Muslim majority.

Contents
Background
Riots
Aftermath
References

Background
The visit of Edward, Prince of Wales to British India came in the middle of the non-cooperation movement
protests for self-governance by the Indian people.[1] This has been described as the greatest threat to British
rule since the 1857 Indian Rebellion.[2] Parsi schoolgirls performed their traditional garba dance.[2] The
non-cooperation movement had been started by pro-independence campaigner Mahatma Gandhi in
September 1920.[3] He had allied his mainly Hindu Indian National Congress with the Muslim Khilafat
Movement to broaden the protest. The Khilafat supporters were particularly concerned in the immediate
post-First World War years as they were worried that the British would depose the Ottoman Caliph, the
spiritual leader of Islam.[2] Hindus and Muslims together comprised a majority of the Indian population and
minorities such as Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and Jews felt threatened by it. Gandhi stated that "The Hindu-
Muslim entente does not mean that big communities should dominate small communities".[2]
The non-cooperation movement advocated that Indians should use
only Indian-made goods and boycotted imported products,
particularly cloth.[2][3] The movement also supported the
withholding of taxes and strikes by students.[3] The Parsi minority
in Bombay Province were particularly affected by the anti-import
stance. The Parsis were heavily involved in the liquor trade, which
often involved imported goods. They accounted for 21% of alcohol
dealers in the province, despite making up only 5% of the
population. Gandhi was opposed the liquor trade in particular and
advised the Parsis to leave it and support a prohibition on
alcohol.[4]

Prince Edward hoped that his visit would raise Loyalist sentiment
in India and counter the non-cooperation movement.[2] Gandhi
called for a boycott of the visit and a general strike (hartal).[5] The
Indian National Congress agreed with the proposed strike and The Prince of Wales at the
bonfires of foreign-made cloth were arranged to be held during the inauguration of the Victoria Memorial
in Calcutta, 1921
visit.[2] The British government of India had imposed repressive
measures against public assembly earlier in 1921. The Viceroy,
Lord Reading, was keen to negotiate with Gandhi over the prince's
visit to Calcutta in December but was prevented by the India Office
that ordered that there would be no negotiations or concessions.[6]

Riots
When the Prince arrived in Bombay he was met with a mixture of
silence, as Congress and Khilafat supporters stayed at home and
closed their businesses, and crowds of Parsis, Jews and Anglo-
Indians that turned out to support him.[2][5] The support of the
minorities outraged those who supported the hartal and the minority
crowds were attacked by Hindus and Muslims.[5] Future journalist
Homai Vyarawalla witnessed the violence and recalled pitched
battles in the streets with the marble stoppers of soda bottles and
stones used as deadly projectiles.[2]

In addition to the violence crowds set fire to shops, trams and

Gandhi (with Annie Besant ) in 1921
cars.[5] Parsi-owned liquor shops were particular targets and one
sixth of all liquor establishments in the city were damaged.[2][4]
One store and the owner's attached home were only saved when he emptied his entire stock of alcohol into
the gutter. In response Parsis and Anglo-Indians armed themselves with lathis and guns and sought to
engage the Congress-Khilafat groups. Anyone wearing homespun khadi cloth, which had become a
symbol of the anti-import campaign, was targeted. One of the Parsi and Anglo-Indian calls was "Down
with the Gandhi caps", relating to the type of sidecap favoured by Gandhi and his supporters. Some Anglo-
Indians and Parsis supported the National Congress, these people were at risk of attack from both sides of
the riot.[2]

Gandhi drove around the city trying to halt the violence, he was aggrieved to hear the Congress mob
shouting "Mahatma Gandhi ki jai" (Hindi for: "Glory to Mahatma Gandhi").[5] At one point he came
across two policemen dying from stab wounds inflicted by the mob.[5] In response to the violence Gandhi
began his first ever hunger strike, vowing to neither eat nor drink until peace was restored.[2][5] The riots,
which began on 19 November, had abated by 22 November.[2][5] At least 58 people were killed.[2]
Aftermath
Gandhi was shocked at what his peaceful strike had degenerated
into and thought that it demonstrated the tinderbox of ethnicities
that India was becoming.[5] He was particularly disappointed that
the Hindu-Muslim majorities had focussed their violence upon
Indian minorities, which served to confirm their fears that an
independent India would be subject to a violent tyranny of the
majority. To allay their fears Gandhi spoke about providing
political spaces for minorities and advocated "Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-
Parsi-Christian-Jew unity".[1] This was generally successful in
reassuring the minorities that they had a future in an independent
India.[2]

By January 1922 thousands of Indians were imprisoned over the

civil disobedience campaign, including hundreds of nationalist A glass bottle with marble stopper
leaders. The campaign continued until the 4 February Chauri (blue)
Chaura incident where a nationalist procession devolved into an
attack on a police station, in which 22 Indian policemen were
burned or hacked to death. Gandhi called an end to the non-cooperation movement, which was
implemented despite opposition from fellow nationalist leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra
Bose. Gandhi was arrested in March and sentenced to six years' imprisonment for sedition, though he was
released on health grounds in 1924.[7]

References
1. Patel, Dinyar (23 April 2018). "Beyond Hindu–Muslim unity: Gandhi, the Parsis and the
Prince of Wales Riots of 1921" (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00194646187
60451). The Indian Economic & Social History Review. 55 (2): 221–247.
doi:10.1177/0019464618760451 (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0019464618760451).
S2CID 150088024 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:150088024).
2. Patel, Dinyar (19 November 2021). "Viewpoint: When Hindus and Muslims joined hands to
riot" (https://web.archive.org/web/20220117172921/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-i
ndia-59174930). BBC News. Archived from the original (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-a
sia-india-59174930) on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
3. Carter, April (1995). Mahatma Gandhi: A Selected Bibliography (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=b6NYLzMC3ZIC&dq=Gandhi&pg=PA16). Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.
p. 16. ISBN 0-313-28296-X.
4. De, Rohit (4 August 2020). A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian
Republic (https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_People_s_Constitution/q3TTDwAAQB
AJ). Princeton University Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-691-21038-4.
5. Kapoor, Pramod (8 February 2018). Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography (https://www.google.c
o.uk/books/edition/Gandhi_An_Illustrated_Biography/k2EuEAAAQBAJ). Roli Books Private
Limited. p. 118. ISBN 978-81-936009-1-7.
6. Matthews, Roderick (1 July 2021). Peace, Poverty and Betrayal: A New History of British
India (https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Peace_Poverty_and_Betrayal/Cxs3EAAAQB
AJ). Hurst Publishers. p. 303. ISBN 978-1-78738-618-1.
7. Carter, April (1995). Mahatma Gandhi: A Selected Bibliography (https://www.google.co.uk/bo
oks/edition/Mahatma_Gandhi/b6NYLzMC3ZIC). Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 17.
ISBN 978-0-313-28296-6.
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